Provodnikov Breaks Alvarado To Capture WBO Crown
by David P. Greisman - BROOMFIELD, Colo. — This was a fight that promised brutality and then delivered on that promise. But this fight was not just about delivering brutality, but receiving it. And in the end, Ruslan Provodnikov delivered far too much for Mike Alvarado to continue to receive. Not with the swelling continuing to build above Alvarado’s right eye. Not with the accumulation of 10 rounds of punishment. Not with two knockdowns suffered in the eighth round. And not with a deficit — and an opponent — that could not be overcome. After the 10th round, referee Tony Weeks went to Alvarado’s corner and asked him multiple times whether he wanted to continue. Each time, Alvarado said “no.” He couldn’t be blamed for that decision. But he could be blamed for what led him there. “It just wasn’t Mike’s night. He was too defensive,” Alvarado’s trainer, Shaun Villhauer, said afterward. “I didn’t like the way he fought tonight. Too defensive. He believed all those clippings since the [Brandon] Rios fight, and he was now a great boxer and got away from what he was best at — fighting. This guy was tailor-made for us tonight, and we didn’t take advantage.” Instead, Provodnikov battered Alvarado and broke him down, scoring the technical knockout victory and winning the World Boxing Organization’s junior welterweight title. It was not the way that Alvarado had envisioned his first title defense, one taking place in front of an announced hometown crowd of 7,012. Alvarado had just come off a pair of stellar battles with Rios in October 2012 and March 2013. Rios won their first fight by seventh-round stoppage, hurting Alvarado and forcing the referee to step in while Alvarado was still on his feet. In the rematch, Alvarado still brawled but also mixed in boxing, a strategy that allowed him to last the distance and win a close decision on the scorecards.